Expanding Pepsi Refresh Everything into 2011

I'm excited to share that Pepsi Refresh Everything is coming back in 2011 with the same funding ($1.3 million being given away) here in the States. It will also be expanding internationally to other regions around the world as well. The objective of Refresh Everything is simple - to help in our own way to make the world a better place by funding good ideas chosen by the community. And yes, it is a marketing initiative coming out of marketing budgets. It is designed to help the Pepsi brand and we're not hiding that fact. At the corporate level PepsiCo does other cause related marketing initiatives.

Every month in 2011 we'll be giving out $1.3 million to wonderful ideas that people nominate and vote on just as we are doing this year. The program has been extremely successful and was recently recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the five best social media programs ever.But we're also looking to strengthen the program further and learn from what has worked and what hasn't worked in 2010. With that in mind, we are going to be soliciting ideas on how best to strengthen the program on Facebook starting next week. Please share your recommendations then (though feel free to add them as comments to this blog post too). It is very much in the ethos of Refresh Everything to partner with you to learn how to make the program even better and useful.

Some statistics from Pepsi Refresh Everything in 2010. We've had over 45 million votes to date with over 7,500 ideas voted on. The program gets more traffic than some of the web properties on which we'd normally consider advertising. And since the start of the program our fan base on Facebook has grown by approximately 700,000 fans. So thank you for your participation and please tell me how we can make it even better in 2011. It is worth pointing out that there's a fabulous (and large!) team that's behind this ongoing success and I'm excited to be a part of that group.

Blog Post Update

This Clickz piece quotes me discussing Refresh Everything. One point that I made in that article is that the website brings in so much traffic that we've realized that we need to think about it as a media property. That this is very much an example of a a brand becoming media as the site attracts more page views than some websites that solicit us for advertising.

What's also interesting is that while paid media has played a significant role in building awareness for the program, the most valuable awareness building and engagement has come via the grant applicants who have asked their networks to vote for their ideas. With the community serving as the media too, the program has garned greater awareness and led to more applications, more votes and more interesting winners overall.

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Expanding Pepsi Refresh Everything into 2011

I'm excited to share that Pepsi Refresh Everything is coming back in 2011 with the same funding (\$1.3 million being given away) here in the States. It will also be expanding internationally to other regions around the world as well. The objective of Refresh Everything is simple - to help in our own way to make the world a better place by funding good ideas chosen by the community. And yes, it is a marketing initiative coming out of marketing budgets. It is designed to help the Pepsi brand and we're not hiding that fact. At the corporate level PepsiCo does other cause related marketing initiatives.

Every month in 2011 we'll be giving out \$1.3 million to wonderful ideas that people nominate and vote on just as we are doing this year. The program has been extremely successful and was recently recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the five best social media programs ever.But we're also looking to strengthen the program further and learn from what has worked and what hasn't worked in 2010. With that in mind, we are going to be soliciting ideas on how best to strengthen the program on Facebook starting next week. Please share your recommendations then (though feel free to add them as comments to this blog post too). It is very much in the ethos of Refresh Everything to partner with you to learn how to make the program even better and useful.

Some statistics from Pepsi Refresh Everything in 2010. We've had over 45 million votes to date with over 7,500 ideas voted on. The program gets more traffic than some of the web properties on which we'd normally consider advertising. And since the start of the program our fan base on Facebook has grown by approximately 700,000 fans. So thank you for your participation and please tell me how we can make it even better in 2011. It is worth pointing out that there's a fabulous (and large!) team that's behind this ongoing success and I'm excited to be a part of that group.

Blog Post Update

This Clickz piece quotes me discussing Refresh Everything. One point that I made in that article is that the website brings in so much traffic that we've realized that we need to think about it as a media property. That this is very much an example of a a brand becoming media as the site attracts more page views than some websites that solicit us for advertising.

What's also interesting is that while paid media has played a significant role in building awareness for the program, the most valuable awareness building and engagement has come via the grant applicants who have asked their networks to vote for their ideas. With the community serving as the media too, the program has garned greater awareness and led to more applications, more votes and more interesting winners overall.